Bronwyn May Gillanders (born 1963) is a marine scientist whose research spans freshwater, estuarine and marine waters while focusing on fish and fisheries ecology. Her studies of the Giant Australian cuttlefish of Northern Spencer Gulf in South Australia revealed the species' sensitivity to increases in salinity; a controversial aspect of the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the expansion of

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

Olympic Dam mine The Olympic Dam mine is a large poly-metallic underground mine located in South Australia, NNW of Adelaide. It is the fourth largest copper deposit and the largest known single deposit of uranium in the world. Copper is the largest contributor ...

. Gillanders' discovery was published in the scientific journal ''Marine Environmental Research'' and prompted environmental activists to call for the relocation of the project's proposed seawater

desalination plant Desalination is a process that removes mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a substance. One example is soil desalination. This is important for agriculture. It is possible ...

Point Lowly Point Lowly is the tip of a small peninsula north north-east of Whyalla in the Upper Spencer Gulf region of South Australia. The wider peninsula is shared by a combination of defence, industrial, residential, recreational and tourism interests ...

, due to its proximity to the only mass breeding area for the animals' genetically distinct population. Gillanders commenced work at the University of Adelaide in 2001, received a tenurable position in 2007 and was appointed professor in 2010. She is the Director of the

Marine Biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

program at the university's

Environment Institute Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

Education

Gillanders completed her Bachelor of Science at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

, Masters of Science at the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

and a PhD at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

Early career

After completing her PhD in Sydney, Australia, Gillanders worked at New South Wales Fisheries on

yellowtail kingfish The yellowtail amberjack, yellowtail kingfish, hiramasa or great amberjack (''Seriola lalandi'') is a large fish found in the Southern Ocean. Although previously thought to be found in all oceans and seas, recent genetic analysis restricts ''S ...

age, growth and reproductive biology. She then returned to the University of Sydney on an

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

(ARC) Postdoctoral Fellowship where her research was focused on population replenishment and connectivity of fish between estuarine and coastal areas.

Spencer Gulf Ecosystem and Development Initiative

Gillanders is currently the Director of the ''Spencer Gulf Ecosystem and Development Initiative'' which as of 2014 is in the early stages of developing an integrated management system for Spencer Gulf's environment and its industrial users. The initiative is led by the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute, in partnership with a number of industrial interests and government agencies. Partners include resource and energy companies

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Alinta Alinta Limited was an Australian energy infrastructure company. It has grown from a small, Western Australia–based gas distributor and retailer to the largest energy infrastructure company in Australia. It was bought in 2007 by a consortium i ...

, Arrium Mining,

Centrex Metals Centrex Metals Limited is an Australian resources exploration and mining company. History Founded in 2001, Centrex Metals was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2006 with the aim of developing several iron ore projects on the Eyre ...

Nyrstar Nyrstar is an international producer of minerals and metals. It was founded in August 2007 and listed on the Euronext Brussels that October. Nyrstar has mining, smelting and other operations located in Europe, the United States and Australia an ...

and port operator,

Flinders Ports Flinders Ports Pty Limited is a company incorporated in 2001 that manages seven of South Australia's ten ports fronting the Great Australian Bight, Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent. It is the state's largest port operator, employing more than 800 ...

. Public sector partners include the

Fisheries Research and Development Corporation The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) is a statutory corporation that manages research and development investment by the Australian Government and the Australian fishing and aquaculture commercial, recreational and Indigeno ...

and Marine Innovation SA collaborators

South Australian Research and Development Institute The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) is the principal research institute of the Government of South Australia, with a network of research centres, laboratories and field sites both in metropolitan Adelaide and throughou ...

(SARDI) and

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

. Gillanders' research work within the initiative includes further studies of giant Australian cuttlefish and of shipping activity within Spencer Gulf. The latter work is a response to concerns about the translocation of exotic species into gulf waters which support lucrative wild-catch

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish far ...

and sea cage

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

industries. Gillanders has described the initiative as having the potential to "be a model for sustainable development around the world."

Political views

Gillanders believes that the environment and industrial expansion can coexist in Spencer Gulf. In 2011 she commented: "I used to think it was either the environment or industrial development, that you couldn't have both... but I think we've moved beyond that now, I just think that we can mesh both together such that we get positive outcomes for both the environment and the industry."

Publications

Gillanders' work has been published in a number of scientific journals, including ''Marine and Freshwater Research'', ''

Journal of Animal Ecology The ''Journal of Animal Ecology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research in all areas of animal ecology. It began publication in 1932, and as such is the second oldest journal of the British Ecological Society (after '' ...

'', ''Reviews in Fish Biology & Fisheries'' and ''BioScience''. Gillanders' also co-edited the text book ''Marine Ecology'' with her partner and fellow environmental scientist, Sean D. Connell. The book was authored by a group of prominent Australian and New Zealand scientists and published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 2007.

Awards and recognition

Gillanders was President of the Australian Society for Fish Biology from 2012 to 2013."Past ASFB Presidents"
ASFB official website, archived 28 February 2014. Accessed 26 February 2017. In 2016, she received the K. Radway Allen Award, the highest honour awarded by the society. She was elected a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) is an independent learned academy that helps Australians understand and use technology to solve complex problems. History The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences was foun ...

(FTSE) in 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillanders, Bronwyn 1963 births Australian ecologists Women ecologists Living people Academic staff of the University of Adelaide Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering University of Canterbury alumni University of Otago alumni University of Sydney alumni